Patients, clinicians, and employees in several departments, including radiology, interventional cardiology, and surgery, are concerned about radiation safety. The largest radiation exposure for medical personnel is caused by radiation released during fluoroscopic procedures. Radiation from diagnostic imaging modalities such as computed tomography, mammography, and nuclear imaging are minimal factors to healthcare personnel’s cumulative dose exposures. Any radiation exposure, however, poses a danger to both patients and healthcare professionals.
Radiation protection units like Unidad Técnica de Protección Radiológica (UTPR) tries to avoid the detrimental effects of ionizing radiation by reducing unnecessary radiation exposure. Ionizing radiation has become an unavoidable instrument in the medical sector for the diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of medical disorders. The cumulative doses of lifetime radiation received by both patients and medical practitioners have increased as its usage has expanded. Fluoroscopic imaging, which employs x-rays to achieve dynamic and cinematic functional imaging, is the source of the majority of radiation exposure in medical settings. Formal radiation protection training aids in the reduction of radiation exposure to medical personnel and patients.
However, maintaining radiation safety requirements may be a difficult task, and many intervention lists do not undergo rigorous radiation dose reduction training during their residency or fellowship. Clinicians and medical workers that employ fluoroscopic imaging outside of designated radiology or interventional departments, in particular, have a low adherence to radiation safety norms. Fluoroscopy is utilized in a wide range of medical disciplines, including orthopedics, urology, interventional radiology, interventional cardiology, vascular surgery, and gastrointestinal. As radiation exposure becomes increasingly common, it will be critical to have a complete awareness of radiation exposure dangers and dose reduction measures.
Important Concerns
Radiation exposure can have biological consequences that are either dose-dependent or probability-dependent. Dose-dependent effects are known as deterministic effects, and they occur when a certain exposure threshold is surpassed. A stochastic effect is a dose-dependent probability that reflects a result that happens with a given probability but without a set threshold at which these effects are activated.
Radiation-induced thyroiditis, dermatitis, and hair loss are examples of deterministic consequences that have been recorded in the disciplines of interventional radiology, cardiology, and radiation therapy. Stochastic consequences, such as cancer growth, are identified several years after radiation exposure. It is vital to remember that the cumulative quantity of radiation exposure an organ or tissue receives over time determines predictable consequences (the lifetime equivalent dose). In comparison, there is a probability that a certain x-ray may produce DNA damage that will lead to cancer, which is a stochastic impact.
